Effect of add Grinding ginger root in the concentrate diet on production of milk and its components in Holstein cattle

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of ground root of Ginger added to the concentrate diet on milk production and milk composition for Holstein cows. In this experiment 11 cows were selected according to age, milk production and bodyweight in a good health and non pregnant after peak of milk production in the college of agriculture, university of Baghdad, and were divided into 3 group as follow:1.Control group where fed only were concentrate diet.2.First Ginger group, cows were fed with concentrate diet enriched with 50 g/cow/day of ground Ginger roots.3.Second Ginger group, cows were fed with concentrate diet enriched with 100 g/ cow/ day of ground Ginger roots. All experiment cows fed concentrate add according to their milk production were 1 kg concentrate diet for each 3 kg milk production (as maintenance diet). In addition, 30-35 kg green roughage/ cow/ day and hay of alfalfa or straw at the rate of 2% of body weight was fed at rainy days. Milk production was recorded daily and some milk composition were monthly determined. Results were as follows, Highly significant (p<0.01) increased in milk production was noticed started from 3rd week after the end of experiment duration. Milk fat and protein percentages were slightly decreased for treated groups accompanied with increase in quantity of milk. Milk lactose content increased in treated as compared to untreated group